This volume originates from the INDAM Symposium on Trends on Applications of Mathematics to Mechanics (STAMM), which was held at the INDAM headquarters in Rome on 5-9 September 2016. It brings together original contributions at the interface of Mathematics and Mechanics. The focus is on mathematical models of phenomena issued from various applications. These include thermomechanics of solids and gases, nematic shells, thin films, dry friction, delamination, damage, and phase-field dynamics. The papers in the volume present novel results and identify possible future developments. The book is addressed to researchers involved in Mathematics and its applications to Mechanics.

Many phenomena of interest for applications are represented by differential equations which are defined in a domain whose boundary is a priori unknown, and is accordingly named a "free boundary." A further quantitative condition is then provided in order to exclude indeterminacy. Free boundary problems thus encompass a broad spectrum which is represented in this state-of-the-art volume by a variety of contributions of researchers in mathematics and applied fields like physics, biology and material sciences. Special emphasis has been reserved for mathematical modelling and for the formulation of new problems.

Hysteresis effects occur in science and engineering: plasticity, ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity are well-known examples. Modelling and mathematical analysis of hysteresis phenomena have been addressed by mathematicians only recently, but are now in full development.
This volume provides a self-contained and comprehensive introduction to the analysis of hysteresis models, and illustrates several new results in this field. First the classical models of Prandtl, Ishlinskii, Preisach and Duhem are formulated and studied, using the concept of "hysteresis operator." A new model of discontinuous hysteresis is introduced. Several partial differential equations containing hysteresis operators are studied in the framework of Sobolev spaces.

The series is aimed specifically at publishing peer reviewed reviews and contributions presented at workshops and conferences. Each volume is associated with a particular conference, symposium or workshop. These events cover various topics within pure and applied mathematics and provide up-to-date coverage of new developments, methods and applications.

... "What do you call work?" "Why ain't that work?" Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: "Well. lI1a), he it is, and maybe it aill't. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawvc/: " "Oil CO/lll , IIOW, Will do not mean to let 011 that you like it?" The brush continued to move. "Likc it? Well, I do not see wlzy I oughtn't to like it. Does a hoy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?" That put the thing ill a Ilew light. Ben stopped nibhling the apple .... (From Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapter II.) Mathematics can put quantitative phenomena in a new light; in turn applications may provide a vivid support for mathematical concepts. This volume illustrates some aspects of the mathematical treatment of phase transitions, namely, the classical Stefan problem and its generalizations. The in tended reader is a researcher in application-oriented mathematics. An effort has been made to make a part of the book accessible to beginners, as well as physicists and engineers with a mathematical background. Some room has also been devoted to illustrate analytical tools. This volume deals with research I initiated when I was affiliated with the Istituto di Analisi Numerica del C.N.R. in Pavia, and then continued at the Dipartimento di Matematica dell'Universita di Trento. It was typeset by the author in plain TEX."

Many phenomena of interest for applications are represented by differential equations which are defined in a domain whose boundary is a priori unknown, and is accordingly named a "free boundary." A further quantitative condition is then provided in order to exclude indeterminacy. Free boundary problems thus encompass a broad spectrum which is represented in this state-of-the-art volume by a variety of contributions of researchers in mathematics and applied fields like physics, biology and material sciences. Special emphasis has been reserved for mathematical modelling and for the formulation of new problems.

... "What do you call work?" "Why ain't that work?" Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: "Well. lI1a), he it is, and maybe it aill't. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawvc/: " "Oil CO/lll , IIOW, Will do not mean to let 011 that you like it?" The brush continued to move. "Likc it? Well, I do not see wlzy I oughtn't to like it. Does a hoy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?" That put the thing ill a Ilew light. Ben stopped nibhling the apple .... (From Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapter II.) Mathematics can put quantitative phenomena in a new light; in turn applications may provide a vivid support for mathematical concepts. This volume illustrates some aspects of the mathematical treatment of phase transitions, namely, the classical Stefan problem and its generalizations. The in tended reader is a researcher in application-oriented mathematics. An effort has been made to make a part of the book accessible to beginners, as well as physicists and engineers with a mathematical background. Some room has also been devoted to illustrate analytical tools. This volume deals with research I initiated when I was affiliated with the Istituto di Analisi Numerica del C.N.R. in Pavia, and then continued at the Dipartimento di Matematica dell'Universita di Trento. It was typeset by the author in plain TEX."

Hysteresis effects occur in science and engineering: plasticity, ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity are well-known examples. This volume provides a self-contained and comprehensive introduction to the analysis of hysteresis models, and illustrates several new results in this field.

1) Phase Transitions, represented by generalizations of the classical Stefan problem. This is studied by Kenmochi and Rodrigues by means of variational techniques.
2) Hysteresis Phenomena. Some alloys exhibit shape memory effects, corresponding to a stress-strain relation which strongly depends on temperature; mathematical physical aspects are treated in M ller's paper. In a general framework, hysteresis can be described by means of hysteresis operators in Banach spaces of time dependent functions; their properties are studied by Brokate.
3) Numerical analysis. Several models of the phenomena above can be formulated in terms of nonlinear parabolic equations. Here Verdi deals with the most updated approximation techniques.